Do I remember the last time not one, not two, but four grassroots fansubbing efforts sprung up because the mainstay fansubbing groups didn’t want to work on a series? I think that says something about a series. I also think that most people fall prey to lemmingism, and I just want to ask one simple thing. If Asread went first, wouldn’t we be complaining about Doumu?

Both production companies have their good points and not-so-good points, but it’s naive to say one is distinctly better or worse than the other. Doumu had the advantage of going first, and first is always good from a comedy standpoint (hence why comedians always want to go first). First is always wonderful from a manga standpoint as a manga-ka generally unloads his best shots first. Mako-cakes? Weather charm Chiaki? Haruka is amazing? All unleashed by Doumu first. Now Asread has the tougher task of following it up without substantially different or even upgraded material. If Doumu didn’t get a chance to talk about Mako-cakes and Hosaka allowing Asread to unload their awesomeness in ~Okawari~, wouldn’t we be bitching about Doumu about now?

Not only that, but Doumu set the tone with competent, above average animation. They did a great job and brought us the joys of the Bible Black faces. Now Asread isn’t as good with pure animation, but they better in some aspects of detail. They’re not noticeably worse or better than Doumu, but they don’t blow Doumu’s style away. Okay, so flotation devices weren’t exactly what I envisioned for Haruka, but I did complain that the original lacked fanservice. We like the original style, didn’t see a reason why to change it, and, well, it got changed. Unless the change was a dramatic improvement like Kyoto or P.A. Works steppin’ in, it’s hard to compete against a competent animation house (especially when there’s a dearth of competent animation houses). Asread’s at a disadvantage, an almost winless situation.

Well, this episode continues a story from the first season, The Legend of Haruka Minami. That episode was epic enough with the realization that Haruka was banchou, the recruitment of Fujioka as the new banchou, and Mako-cakes’ epic “Don’t show us funny things!” How can you top that? I’m not sure, but Asread gave the story its best shot with Kana doing stupid things. And, honestly, that’s not a bad way to go.

(And if you want bitch about a new production studio ruining the original work, you’ve got the wrong winter 2008 series. Save your bitching this one. It’s almost disingenuous to bitch about ~Okawari~ without leveling ~Il Teatrino~ first.)

Funniest Moments

The major theme of this episode was positions of leadership:

Haruka being nominated for class rep.

Haruka being reminded of her banchou days.

Kana being reminded of Haruka’s banchou days and thusly breaking out her Legend of Haruka Minami book.

Kana upping the ante by changing Haruka from “banchou” to “obanchou.”

Kana recruiting a gang of nefarious students.

Chiaki pulling off a Godfather act worthy of being the next banchou.

I gave Haruka the Michael Corleone Award, but I’m beginning to think she’s more of a Vito while Chiaki is the proper Michael Corleone. I think it fits. Michael became the most level headed and was the youngest. He also developed Godfather-like tendencies before he even knew it, much like Chiaki ordering Touma, Uchida, and others around.

(Andohbytheway, for this screenshot, does it go, from left to right, Azuma, Miya-Miya, Sayoko, and Lion-chan?)

Thought the Kana analogy to the hamster was brilliant. If there were more KFCs and Burger Kings near the Minami resident, I’m sure in thirty years, Kana would be one of those 300 pound guests that appear on Jerry Springer. I just hope it’ll be because her husband, Fujioka, finally snaps and has an affair with Reiko, who is in prison for multiple stabbings.

Haruka is amazing.

(That’s a scary dying to be shared. Warm scarves one of the few things I miss from the frigid Michigan winters.)

*Sigh* I can’t believe that they’re still introducing new characters. Who is that boy standing on the left?

Hosaka! You’re trailing Mako-cakes in the poll, and Mako-cakes doesn’t even show up this episode! Pull it together man!

Oh fantastic! I knew this scene was coming… I just knew Kana would treat Fujioka as an object (I wonder if he’s the Kyon to her Haruhi yet, or is Kyon status still just a dream for poor Fujioka?), and I knew Reiko couldn’t resist once Kana put him up for sale.

One thing Asread is doing new are these forced perspective shots. They make the characters look alien when done right, and these shots of Chiaka look like Sayoko from Higurashi. I’m not against the forced perspective, but they are jarring at times, like when Reiko pulled out her 4 meter long arm for the arm rasslin’. I just hope Chad Ford didn’t see that or else he’d be having a wingspangasm… “What incredible athleticism combined with a freakish wingspan and tons of upside!”

Combined with the Bible Black shots, it’s becoming quite a palette of faces. I wonder if Shaft works on Minami-ke 365 or whatever, are we going to get the Hidamari Sketch super deformed shots as well?

Bullying 4tw!

Is Kana competing with Horo for “Most episodes with a nakkid scene”? Or are they just competing in the glutton category?

Beginning to think Fujioka would make a better housewife than Haruka. Is this sacrilegious? As he is proving, unrequited love sucks, especially when she’s an idiot smorgesbord.

(Since there seems to be continuity with the previous episode, I think Fujioka has recovered from seeing Kana nakkid. Or is he even more in love with her now after seeing that? Or can someone tell Reiko that he saw Kana nakkid just to see her expression?)

(And, yes, this further proves that Kana is Sonny. She thinks she can lead, but she can’t and fails spectacularly.)

Couldn’t agree more. It’s Minami-ke, I wanted to see it but the lack of subs after 3 raws were released was discouraging. A friend and me decided to go ahead and rectify the problem which is how the first Aho-Neko sub got released.

I love the show and judging from the reaction of many people on forums many of them were simply too familiar with Doumu’s Minami-ke. They wanted to keep the Doumu’s style too much to give a good chance to Asread’s Minami-ke.

I think the art style was different in the first episode. This second one was waaaay better. I think a fusion of the art style of both studios. Although I think they’re using a bit too few frames in the character’s motion…

Nonetheless, I’m glad the animation’s getting better… or maybe that’s just me. Did you guys notice it too?

The lack of faces is what really bothers me about Asread’s run at it, given that Doumu and even Imagin are giving the background characters faces… hell, Gonzo’s doing it in Pantsu + Vampire, and they’ve saved money everywhere else by recycling the same transformation shot every episode. That, and the ‘more fanservice’, although at least they’re toning it down a tad.

Thank god they kept the music along with the seiyuus, so it feels a bit more like a continuation. However, this ‘lack of faces’ is actually somewhat more disturbing than the fanservice – like papa and Roy Mustang, I found that they drew my attention more than the main characters, due to their… well, freakish appearance. If this was to ‘keep the characters in the limelight’ sort of decision… it failed, miserably. Grey them out if needed, but this is just… wrong.

wp: Yes, the Hosaka-vision returns in full in Ep 3. Then again, so does the fanservice…

Heeeh, the blacked-out faces didn’t really bother me that much (much like the gradient-colored background people during the first few episodes of Lucky Star and the latter episodes of Seto no Hanayome)… that is until one of them actually was given lines of dialogue. It wasn’t jarring as some of the other folks would want you to think, but it did make the scene rather wierd.

TBH, apart from the creepy black faces (which, while I understand is a cultural thing, freaks me the hell out more then Mako-cakes) and Haruka’s disturbingly large water breasts (with those monsters, I’m surprised she hasn’t had a wardrobe meltdown!), I don’t see what all the bruhaha is about. This new one is just as awesome as the first, what with Haruka’s brush with ultimate power (I can imagine Haruka as first World Emperor, subduing rowdy nations with a single Mob Boss look), Mako-cakes edging closer to the day when he-she says “Screw it” and goes in for the sex-change op, and poor, doomed Fujioka and his life as Kana’s bitch. Roll on Episode three, and Hosaka’s bat-shit insane laugh.

If I may be historical,the original silhouettes were made by a lawyer who was too cheap to get a photograph. I presume that Anonymous was enlisted for a similar reason. Still very disconcerting,though.